What a Woman Wants Read Online Free PDF Page A

all giddy that he had been paired with her, which made all the other single girls downright envious. She figured he would be around thirty-eight now, the same age as Arnie. Lyle had certainly aged well. Tall, dark, and handsome, he would capture the attention of any female the moment he walked into a room. She’d heard from Arnie that he never married; instead Lyle had dedicated his life to his occupation, that of a renowned heart specialist.
    As Monique took off jogging down the beach, she looked forward to seeing him again the next day.
    An hour or
so later, Lyle was giving his body a brutal workout in the gym at his condo complex. Seeing Nicky had had one hell of an effect on him.
    Deciding he had had enough, he left the gym to go back to his place for a shower. It had been a long time since he’d given his body so much physical abuse, but thoughts of a woman could do that to you.
    Moments later, while standing beneath a spray of hot water, he thought maybe he should be taking a cold shower instead. Desire was drumming through him, taking him back in time and making him recall the exact moment he’d fallen for Nicky, all those years ago—a secret he was determined to take to his grave.
    He had noticed her that first summer, and since she had been merely sixteen when he was twenty-two, he had felt guilty about lusting after his best friend’s kid sister. Even then she’d been a beauty, and when he had seen her again years later at Arnie’s wedding, he was in awe of just how much that beauty had blossomed.
    He had always intended to revisit the Olivier family after that summer with the full intention of making his interest known when Monique got older. But he never got the chance. It wasn’t long after that summer that the private investigator he and his brothers had hired to find their sister had done so, and for the following years after that, he and his brothers, Logan and Lance, had made bonding with their long-lost sister their top priority. More than anything, they wanted to make sure Carrie knew that she was wanted and loved. The next time he’d talked to Arnie and asked about Monique, he’d been given the heartbreaking news that she’d married a guy she met in college.
    That’s when Lyle decided that since he’d lost his first love, he would dedicate his life to his second love—the medical field. Remarkably, in a very short time he had advanced in his career and was proud of his status as one of the youngest but most noted members in his profession.
    As he stepped out of the shower and dried off, he remembered the hurt and pain he’d endured knowing another man had married the woman he’d always considered to be “his Nicky.”
    The only persons who’d known of his broken heart had been his brothers. He spilled his guts one night when the three had been sitting around Lance’s condo in Chicago, after overindulging in too much drink while celebrating the arrival of the New Year. Logan had sympathized with him, but Lance, who’d at the time had considered himself the ultimate playa, had been too jaded to care and had even gone so far as to tell him that women were a dime a dozen and to get over Nicky and move on to another. That was easier said than done, and although he’d dated over the years, a piece of his heart would always belong to Monique.
    What was the likelihood of their paths crossing after all these years? With his busy schedule, he hadn’t kept in contact with Arnie the way he should have. He knew Arnie headed the neurosurgical department at Massachusetts General and that he and his wife, Cheryl, had three kids, a son and two daughters.
    Pulling on a pair of shorts and T-shirt, he headed for the kitchen and smiled. It seemed that fate was giving him another chance to make Monique a part of his life, and the big question was just what he was going to do about it. He could tell from the way she’d mentioned her deceased husband that she had loved the man and probably still did.